Circuit Sprint,  Taupo Centennial Park Raceway,  January 2003

TCS Racing is sponsored by :

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This was a spectacular event !  Before we get into the details we'd like to send a special thank you to Karen Stubbs who was not only instrumental in organising the event,  but also ran the event both days despite having lost her voice.

The event was run in the correct direction around the track,  but from the opposite side to the normal start line so the vehicles went  almost immediately into the sweeper after launch.  The track was wet for the first hour or so on day one but quickly dried out.  On the second day there was some light drizzle a couple of times which meant most drivers were hard pushed to be faster than the previous day,  however the track did not get wet enough to cause a dramatic change in speeds. 

Both of the TCS Racing vehicles performed well over the weekend,  all though both of them require some minor repairs due to the extreme stress they were placed under.

Richard and Sean drove the new incarnation of ME8579 while Troy drove the new SO863.  Sean and Richard both come away with points in the Production Class,  and Troy receives points in the 1601cc-2000cc class.

Troy's initial run was approximately ten seconds faster than his times last year,  which was probably due the increase in power of the new car,  however he was also able to pickup an additional three seconds on his second run.  Troy's third run on the second day was a second or so slower than his best.  This was due to a clutch problem,  Troy was on a grid next to Rod Hazelton (in a supercharged MR2).  Troy beat Rod off the line but then couldn't select second gear which allowed Rod to sneak through on the inside.  Troy chased Rod through the sweeper with Rod holding him up,  however when the hit they straight both drivers gunned it.  The vehicles were fairly evenly matched in terms of power,  but Troy was able to perform a late-braking pass manuever and sneak around Rod at the corner before the hairpin.  This was Troy's first experience at passing another car during an event,  and also his first late-braking pass,  and it proved very successful.  Troy would like to thank Rod for putting up such great competition.
Troy's took a friend of his,  Gayle Broomfield,  as a passenger on most of his runs.  Gayle greatly enjoyed the experience.  Most of Troy's runs were without incident however he did encounter two problems.  First,  the second driver of the car,  Jeff Torkington,  assured Troy the car had 'Plenty' of fuel on the morning of the first day,  however on Troy's second run (after Jeff's first) the car ran out of petrol just after the hairpin on the warm up lap.  The fuel guage wasn't working,  and we will be looking at this over the next few weeks along with the other repairs needed.  More fuel solved the problem and Troy went out again on a later grid.  The second incident occurred on day two when the the number of laps per grid increased from three to four.
The back left wheel had been coming loose all weekend,  with both Troy and Jeff having pulled out at start grids or during runs to retighten the wheel nuts.  Troy tightened the nuts immediately before his last run in SO863,  however at least one of the nuts had started to strip and on his fourth lap it came loose again.  At the corner immediately prior to the hairpin Troy lost control due to the loose wheel and fish-tailed trying to recover.  Troy ended up spinning ninety degrees across the track,  facing the armco barrier,  before being able to recover the vehicle (without having come to a complete stop !).  This was a spectacular effort on Troy's part.
It was also at about this point the clutch seized permanently.
Sean pulled out to assist with results at this point (thanks Sean!) and Troy took over his runs in ME8579,  although his runs in this vehicle were unofficial and do not count for club points.  Troy's first lap in this vehicle was purely practice so he could get used to the differences.  Troy had only had one more run in this vehicle after his first,  but improved by seven seconds,  which was a good effort.

Sean also had a spectacular weekend.  Seans times were quite good given the vehicle he was in.  What would have been his best run occurred when he was placed on a start grid with Jeff Torkington (driving a 1.6 litre Honda CRX).  Sean managed to beat Jeff off the start line using a race start and almost managed to keep Jeff at bay throughtout the entire run.  Unfortunately Sean pushed a little too hard at the sweeper,  he ended-up with only two wheels on the ground (a symptom known as 'bicycling').  Sean ended up sliding over a ripple strip in this position before coming to a rest (right way up thankfully) in the kitty litter.  Sean was unharmed,  but  Jeff snuck through to beat him,  and of course the incident hurt Seans time for that run.  Some minor damage was done to the vehicles front skirting as it went over the ripple strip,  but repairs are underway.

Richard decided not to worry about times at all on the first day and concentrated on driving with finesse and accuracy.  On second day Rick pushed a little harder and his times improved considerably.  Richard managed to avoid any unfortunate incidents.

There were four AW11 MR2's at the event this weekend,  Rod Hazeltons supercharged version,  TCS Racings ME8579 & SO863 and another MR2 with a 20 valve 4-AGE engine in it driven by Simon Calkin and Mark Nicholls.  The latter proved to be very fast,  given its engine size and the fact it was normally aspirated.  Anyone looking for more power in an MR2 would be wise to consider this as a possible option.

There were two contact accidents during the weekend.  Paul Torkington,  Jeff's son,  spun the Suzuki Swift he was driving and hit a bank on the drivers side.  Eric Uhe damaged the left front corner of his Honda Civic when he hit a tire wall on the same corner as Paul.  Luckily,  no one was seriously hurt,  although Paul did get a bump to his head (helmets are mandatory and prevent any serious injury and Paul's did it's job).  Paul was also in shock for a little while after the accident.

One of our teams most memorable moments from this weekend was returning to the Taupo Top 10 Holiday Park where we were staying, after Pauls accident.  Upon arrival every body picked up tools and set to work on the Swift,  and all of the repairs possible were made before dark.  Unfortunately Paul only got to drive the vehicle once on day two before withdrawing,  as the wheels were badly out of alignment and the car pulled left under heavy acceleration or braking.  It is possible the chassis rails are slightly bent. 

The event was well run,  the only real issue being on the first day when there were large gaps between runs due to competitors being slack about turning up at the start line.  A force majure was almost called because of this in consideration for the marshals stuck out in the cold weather,  however the officials managed to convince the person in charge to continue the event.  A big thanks also the Kathy  Parnell who ran the results at the event despite nearly freezing herself.

The only other problems with organisation that occurred were with the results system which Jeff Torkington had not managed to complete prior to the event due to work commitments.  Troy and Jeff worked on the system Friday night,  and got the basics functioning for the first day.  Troy had also brought with him a printable, dynamic, web page to display the results,  but the CD it was on turned out to be unreadable so Troy had to rebuild this page on the morning of the first day.  The power supply for the lap top had also been left behind,  however Jeff had cables to run the laptop from a car battery,  and TCS Racing were able to provide a spare one.  Some more changes were made to the system on the second night,  allowing for saving of the results direct to a database and adjustment to allow for timing of four laps per run instead of three.

The biggest disapointment,  and perhaps one of the biggest blessings for the competitors,  was the small turnout.  With only twenty four entries on the day,  and a requirement of forty to break even the HCMC lost a fair amount of money running this event.  The good news is this eased the organisation,  and allowed all of the competitors present more runs with fewer cars on the track at once.  Two reasons for the smaller turnout may be the event being run on Mothers Day and the fact that it was not a long weekend.  Normally we try to get the venue over a long break,  but it is becoming very hard to rent Taupo Centennial Park Raceway at all as it is a very busy circuit.

Our team and guests had a terrific time,  and we thoroughly recommend this event to everyone.  We will defintely be back next year !

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Click here for results from this event

TCS Racing is sponsored by :
TRIPLE D CONSULTING